Lots of thoughts running through my mind right now as I prepare for a small workshop to help boost the confidence of the musicians at my current church before I leave. The most pressing on my mind right now is this one:
How can we lead others into God’s presence if we haven’t been there ourselves?
Last night I led worship for a small gathering and the leader said that I would be “leading…(them)…into God’s presence tonight.” I thought…wow, you know what? I haven’t really been in God’s presence today.
How can we lead worship when we don’t spend time in worship daily?
How can we lead worship when we are chasing after other things besides God?
Man…I need to be in His presence more than ever.
We live in a culture that is dominated by self. We hear phrases like, “You deserve better,” or “You deserve the best.” Our kids are taught to have high self-esteem. Our culture is encouraged to have the newest car, biggest house, newest technology; you name it. But this is contradictory to what God teaches us.
God teaches us that we should become last in order to be first (Matthew 10:12), and that we should consider others as better than ourselves (Philippians 2).
Then why are we constantly frustrated that we aren’t being recognized for the work that we’re doing? Shouldn’t Jesus be lifted higher than ourselves?
Why are we constantly grasping our money in our bank accounts? If we have change in our pockets, we are among the wealthiest people in the world. Shouldn’t we be helping those who are far less fortunate than we are?
Why are we constantly finding ways to blame others for hurting us, when maybe we are too proud to admit that we are the ones who won’t let go of a grudge? Shouldn’t we be finding every way possible to serve everyone we come in contact with?
Offering something that you want to get rid of is easy. It’s like giving those old clothes away to Goodwill. Being an offering is hard. Offering your entire life, your very best, your very self for the cause of Jesus is hard. But it’s what we need to learn to do. I pray that I can be an example, and be completely selfless, so that Jesus will be lifted higher and higher.
When we become selfless, we stop seeing ourselves, and start to see the needs of others, and it is tremendously eye-opening.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the difference between piano playing and keyboard playing. I had mentioned that I would tell you why it was important to know the difference and ways that you can make the switch.
First, why it’s important:
- The lyrical content of songs for worship should always be the most important element. Learning to play more of a keyboard style helps let the singers come through and the music become secondary.
- That being said, style of music is also important. It is important to be able to not make a modern song sound like a classical piece.
- If you are part of a full band, keyboard playing helps create texture. Too much piano playing makes the mix muddy. You can play fills in the cracks where there are no lyrics, but texture is key.
- Keyboards are much more portable than pianos.
Now, how do you learn how to do these things?
- Find someone who knows how and listen to them.
- Practice.
- Listen to the keyboard part on any recording you hear.
- Practice.
- Learn music theory, and learn how to build chords and play off of a lead sheet. This site is a great resource for learning music theory.
- Practice.
- Find resources that can help you develop your skills. Paul Baloche’s leadworship.com is an excellent one.
It is so important to know the difference between piano playing and keyboard playing, and to know when to appropriately use each skill.
Boy it’s weird that I only have three Sundays left at Lord of Life. However, God has been constantly confirming that this is the right decision and I’m really excited to get more involved with Living Word and Abiding Savior.
I’m preparing a small workshop to help give the worship team members some confidence before I leave, and one thought keeps on striking me:
Your team is only as strong as it’s weakest passion.
In other words, you can have a team of volunteers who just volunteer, or a you can have a team of passionate people who are passionate about ministry. If you have a volunteer who’s not really passionate about what the ministry is, and their passion is weak, how strong can that ministry really be? If your leader has great passion, but can’t seem to get one person in particular to be passionate about the ministry, that person’s weak passion is going to be the part of the team that is noticed.
Colossians 3:23,24 says,
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
If we have members of our team that are not working with all of their hearts, as working for Lord, what’s wrong? Yes, God wants to use everyone in His Kingdom, but I think sometimes we are not challenging everyone to be used to their full potential.
I am still wrestling with these thoughts, but I am truly beginning to believe that if every member of a team is completely passionate about the ministry they are involved in, amazing things would happen. Let’s ignite passion so much that everyone on our teams would catch that fire.
Hey all!
 For those of you wondering, I am still alive. It’s been a busy week, but God is so good. I have lots to post on next week and will be back into a regular schedule, but I just wanted to give a heads up that you’ll have lots of posts to look forward to!
Just got back from a night of drama and music to raise money for a youth convention, and boy was I blessed. God was definitely moving. The youth room was transformed into a coffee shop, and it actually felt like a real coffee shop. It was way cool. More to come…